Saturday 20 April 2013 04.00 EDT
First published on Saturday 20 April 2013 04.00 EDT

So sophisticated has English winemaking become that we tend to think in terms of champagne-style sparkling wines and crisp, Sancerre-like whites. But there's a strong tradition of making fruit- and flower-flavoured wines that also seems to be undergoing a revival.

Field Bar Red Rose Petal Wine

At a recent Love Food festival in Bristol, I came across a Gloucestershire company called Field Bar. Its delicious range includes a very pretty, delicate Elderflower Sparkling Wine (£7.95, Stroud farmers' market and various food festivals; 7% abv) and a sweet, scented Red Rose Wine (£7.95, fieldbarwine.co.uk; 13% abv) that would be great with summer desserts such as panna cotta and strawberries.

Quite a lot of fruit wines, in fact, are off-dry, which should go down well with those who are willing to admit they like a touch of sweetness. (As retailers have told me, people tend to talk dry but drink sweet.) Another producer, Lyme Bay Winery, makes a light, strawberry-flavoured wine called Lymelight (£5.99, Beers of Europe; £6.50, lymebaywinery.co.uk; 5.5% abv) that's a rather nice alternative to blush wines such as white zinfandel. It's good with light chicken or brie salads.

The Cornish Mead Company, meanwhile, calls its fruit wines mead, which seems a smart move given the unglamorous image of country wines. It's collaborating with London restaurant Northbank to introduce "mead Mondays", where you can taste meads paired with different dishes. Its range of flavours includes strawberry, cherry and elderberry, all at 17% abv, which makes them particularly good for cocktails. Miles, the barman at Northbank, made me a cracking caipirinha with the Elderberry Mead (£8.71, cornishmead.co.uk; 17% abv), but you could also use them for a very English kir royale topped up with an English sparkling wine.

Cornish Mead Wine Photograph: Michael Whitaker for the Guardian

I also like the drier, medium-dry, sherry-like Cornish Mead Wine (£7.46, cornishmead.co.uk and Cornish branches of the Co-op, Morrisons and Tesco; 14% abv) with its hint of quince, which I can imagine going really well with roast pork belly or a tagine. Again, it's not strictly kosher (mead is traditionally brewed from just honey and water), but it is more delicious than most conventional meads I've tasted.

Finally, next month sees the opening of London's first meadery. Gosnells makes lighter, drier meads that are designed to be drunk with food much like a beer or a cider. It's another welcome addition to the city's burgeoning micro-brewing scene.